(Manchester) Windmill Street

[richard_t]

Since a long stint of daily commutes to first Altringham and then Brooklands (from Milton Keynes), I’ve been fascinated by the site of the old Cheshire-Lines-Committee terminus of Manchester Central. It’s quite a compact site for such an interesting station, and looking at the track work and services possible from this site makes a very interesting layout indeed. Unfortunately I don’t have the room for the whole layout in my chosen scale of Scale 7 (true scale 7mm), and I’ve devised a number of schemes that will fit in the double garage we have. If I win the lottery and have the room for a 50’ x 30’ barn I could fit in Manchester Central, Deansgate and Castlefield Junction in, with the running lines out in the garden – I can dream!

 

Back to what I could really do. Although I could fit a layout based around platforms 4-8 in the garage, as this is my first Scale 7 layout, I thought I better start with something a bit more easily achieved. But first a little history...

 

The Cheshire Lines Committee was formed by the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire and the Great Northern as a way of overcoming the near monopoly enjoyed by London North Western Railway of traffic between south Lancashire and Cheshire. They were later joined by the Midland Railway, who wanted a terminus within Manchester and thus leading to the longest lived joint railway within the British railway system. The early years saw expansion of the system to serve Liverpool, Manchester, Stockport, Warrington, Chester and many other places. The CLC was finally absorbed into the London Midland region of British Railways at nationalisation, in 1947, some 80 years as a full independent railway.

 

Back to Manchester, the CLC realised that to become a major player that would need to extend their network out to Manchester as they had done to Liverpool. During the 1860’s and 1870’s the CLC’s driving force was a mainline between Manchester and Liverpool to overcome the existing monopoly on lines between these two cities and the proposal gained widespread support where traders were dissatisfied with existing facilities that both the LNWR and L&Y provided. Unsurprisingly the two latter companies where up in arms over the new railway, as where some local landowners but despite this opposition the route received Parliamentary sanction under two acts during 1865 and 1866.

 

All three partners of the CLC realised that upgrading the facilities at Manchester London Road would be the cheapest and best option for their Manchester terminus. But the LNWR where having none of that requiring the CLC to look elsewhere for a suitable site. This they found near the Manchester Free Trade Hall and approval from Parliament was granted for a temporary station at Windmill Street in 1872, with the understanding that it would be converted to a goods station. The LNWR were to get their own back when the CLC started looking for a bigger site to house a far more impressive station. By infiltrating the Manchester Council with pro-LNWR people, along with the planning committees, they effectively blocked all but the most modest of stations near their existing facilities. Worse was to come, the CLC where only granted permission to run the two existing lines into the new terminus and the soon to be converted goods station. The new station could at least boast three platforms and a modicum of locomotive facilities. The LNWR, of course, where happy at this point to allow the competitors access to London Road but at a price.

 

This took the wind out of the CLC sails on Manchester, and so the new station never became the grand affair the CLC initially wished for. In years to come the two lines into the site where to prove the biggest problem. With contention of goods and passenger services, the CLC goods depot was an early causality, eventually making way for car parking. The GNR ‘Deansgate’ goods depot at least lasted until the 1960’s, but that to closed, due to declining revenues mainly thanks to direct competition from road transport. The building is still standing, currently in use as a nightclub of dubious repute, surely ripe for development come the 1990’s and 2000’s into spacious city centre apartments.

 

Beeching came and went in the 60’s but it was decided to keep Manchester Windmill Street open in an attempt to curb the increasing road traffic that was starting to choke the roads to the west of Manchester. It was thought that Oxford Road wouldn’t be able to cope with the increase of passenger train transferred from Windmill Street, and the new through freightliner trains serving Trafford Park.

 

Steam hauled services made way to diesel multiple units, and with that the turntable was filled in, with one of the lines to it retained. The services remained much the same, with trains to Liverpool and Chester dominating services. A recent innovation was a clubman like service of locomotive and hauled stock in the early morning, lunchtime and evening in an attempt to attract business men and shoppers to give up their cars.

 

So onto the layout in question: It's based on platforms 1, 2 and 3 of Manchester Central (mirrored) and the layout itself will be based in 1983, as it’s the year I started spotting (miles away from Manchester, in good old Luton), and there are a fair number of 1st generation diesels still plying their trade around Manchester. Finally, it’s the first year of the High Speed Train takeover of services on the Midland Main Line, releasing Peaks for other services, such as the Trans-Pennine services; more of this later.

 

Onto some practicalities of the layout: I'll have to dispense with the big overall roof, although it will have platform canopies (similar to those that were at the end of the platforms of the real thing). The overall roof would be nice, but it’s probably inappropriate for the smaller site, it’s a major construction project on its own, and it would be interesting uncoupling under it! The station building will be a two storey brick affair, rather than the “temporary†wooden buildings. Looking at my collection of CLC books I’m not able to identify a common CLC house style for buildings, so I’ll have another look through the books and borrow one of the existing station buildings for the site. The signal box will be similar to one of the boxes that the elevated 1935 version replaced. I'll have to ignore the fact that the real Manchester Central was completely relayed with flat-bottom turnouts and the curves eased, as I've been unable to obtain these plans.

 

Services are multiple units to Chester (General) and Liverpool (edit: Central Lime Street), with the "clubman" like morning, lunchtime and evening service of loco hauled + stock to Liverpool (Lime Street). The lunch time turn will be a fill-in turn for one of the Trans-Pennine services. The timetable will be based on that of 1966 for which I have the public timetable. I also have the working timetable for Manchester Central, but this is dated much earlier, before the introduction of multiple units. I'll probably invent a reason for parcel/newspaper trains at some point as well. This will probably a feeder into Chester, and then onto south Wales. I’m pretty sure that Sundays would consist of permanent way trains trying to get the track working for another week, and the passenger trains make way for replacement buses.

 

The plan attached is from an overlay supplied by Greater Manchester County Records Office, but the terms of use don't allow me to post it. Along with the track layout are the platforms, retaining walls, and roads of the area; as I’ve said the actual plan has been mirrored. The main baseboards will support the viaduct, and I’ll hope to have some boards “hanging†off each side to include some of the environment. These, though, will probably wait until the main track has been laid. The whole feel of the layout will be of a station that’s seen better days, litter and weeds dominate, and excepting the peak rush hours the station is a cold, windy and desolate place. The Templot plan is available to download from the Templot Club forum should you be that interested.

 

 

Looking at the track layout: the siding heading straight off the up main is the former turntable road, and has been retained for stabling of locomotives after bringing in either passenger or parcel stock. It will be modelled pretty overgrown, with probably some sort of accommodation for the drivers nearby, possibly a portakabin. Platform 1 (the top most), is used by the clubman services and the parcels/newspaper trains. With no run-around the incoming locomotives would either follow out the train when it departs or stable on the turntable road. Platform 2 is used by Liverpool DMU services and platform 3 (which I admit is far too short), is used by the Chester DMU services. The “A†road, between platforms 2 and 3 again is used to hold stock, units, etc, but as with the turntable road: weeds rule. The reason for the “A†road is that it’s a classic design element from the real Manchester Central; the layouts operation may do without it. On the real Manchester Central the A/B/C/D roads (the central locomotive release roads between each of the platforms on the original) where all taken out of use in the 60’s, I guess as a result of the replacement of most services by units.

 

Interestingly on the real thing the tandems at the end of the platforms don't allow for large locomotives to run round (I've allowed space for a class 25), and the 3 lines are to standard rail centres. I've based my checkrails on a minimum of 8 chains, as 10 minimum chains meant check rails everywhere - which looking at pictures of the real thing was pretty much the case, but on this cut down version they seemed to dominate the layout somewhat. Unfortunately pictures of lower numbered platforms are hard to come by, especially in bullhead times, it looks like Platform 9 was the spotters favourite platform to shot from, and shots from the signal box again concentrate on the higher numbered platforms.

 

The main part of the layout will fit in the garage, with the fiddle yards out in the garden. The fiddle yard is a bit “oddâ€, as it needs to slew past three water butts with one line that can "tunnel" through some camellia foliage and possibly onto the rest of the garden. The back lines are conventional storage sidings (for the diesel units); where as the front two are for cassettes for the locomotive hauled trains.

 

 

Any comments are more than welcome, I’ve got a ton of questions, mostly regarding signalling, but I’ll post these later after I’ve had some initial feedback.

 

References: Portrait of the Cheshire Lines Committee; Nigel Dyckhoff; 1999; Ian Allan Publishing; ISBN 0 7110 2521 5

[trisonic]

Richard, Any layout of an Urban terminus of this size will remind people of the "Minories" design by CJ Freezer. I assume you have looked at that?

 

Best, Pete.

[Flying Pig]

This looks like an interesting project, Richard: decayed urban termini were a characteristic feature of my childhood but don't seem to attract many modellers - too depressing I suppose. I'm reminded however of a coarse 0 gauge layout based on Manchester Central that was exhibited in the 1970s and described in Railway Modeller. That layout was an out and back system via a return loop and it strikes me that this might be a more convenient setup for you than having to go outside to service the fiddle yard. Do you have room in the garden for a return loop or do the minimum radii for ScaleSeven preclude it?

 

I'll have to dispense with the big overall roof, although it will have platform canopies (similar to those that were at the end of the platforms of the real thing).

From what I can see on the Web (e.g. this image on Disused Stations), Southport Lord Street seems to have had a short overall roof with canopies beyond. Perhaps you could model the semi-derelict sidewalls of a similar structure, the roof itself having been removed. Short sections of modern canopy could contrast with the CLC design still in place further along the platforms.

 

I'm not sure how many alterations you've made to the prototype plan, apart from mirroring it, but there are a couple of features that catch my eye. First, I've a feeling that facing points into the loco sidings from the up main would have been avoided when the station was first designed. I wondered if you could fit in a headshunt along side the up main and change to trailing access, but then it occurred to me that you could alternatively assume that BR had replaced an original trailing connection from the down main over a diamond or slip with the ladder of points on your plan

 

Second, I can't see from your posted plan what kind of entity is at the end of platform 2. Is it a single slip, or have you arranged a connection from the down main to the A road via a double slip? If the latter, I think the layout shown below would be more flexible as it allows that movement simultaneously with an arrival into platform 2. Probably irrelevant in 1983, but a relic of busier days.

 

[richard_t]

Many thanks Pete and Simon for taking the trouble to take a look and respond.

 

Richard, Any layout of an Urban terminus of this size will remind people of the "Minories" design by CJ Freezer. I assume you have looked at that?

 

Best, Pete.

Yes it's surpising how similar they are, although they're different if you see what I mean. The idea is to model just a piece of the real Manchester Central, but as Simon has pointed out this has caused a few problems...

 

This looks like an interesting project, Richard: decayed urban termini were a characteristic feature of my childhood but don't seem to attract many modellers - too depressing I suppose. I'm reminded however of a coarse 0 gauge layout based on Manchester Central that was exhibited in the 1970s and described in Railway Modeller. That layout was an out and back system via a return loop and it strikes me that this might be a more convenient setup for you than having to go outside to service the fiddle yard. Do you have room in the garden for a return loop or do the minimum radii for ScaleSeven preclude it?

Yes I've just read up about that layout in the Guild's "Fifty Years Along The Line" - the layout(s) was built by Bob Ledger. Boy do those course scale chaps have some fun, which to some extent I think us finescale people may have lost, but that's for another post! If we're still at this house by the time the main station is finished then yes I'd like to run a double line around the garden with a double junction (Cornbrook West Jn.)

 

From what I can see on the Web (e.g. this image on Disused Stations), Southport Lord Street seems to have had a short overall roof with canopies beyond. Perhaps you could model the semi-derelict sidewalls of a similar structure, the roof itself having been removed. Short sections of modern canopy could contrast with the CLC design still in place further along the platforms.

Stunning idea, and something I'll sit down to think about when I have a bit more time. I was going to dispense with the side walls, but I like this idea alot and I've already got the reference photographs of the real thing.

I'm not sure how many alterations you've made to the prototype plan, apart from mirroring it, but there are a couple of features that catch my eye. First, I've a feeling that facing points into the loco sidings from the up main would have been avoided when the station was first designed. I wondered if you could fit in a headshunt along side the up main and change to trailing access, but then it occurred to me that you could alternatively assume that BR had replaced an original trailing connection from the down main over a diamond or slip with the ladder of points on your plan

 

Second, I can't see from your posted plan what kind of entity is at the end of platform 2. Is it a single slip, or have you arranged a connection from the down main to the A road via a double slip? If the latter, I think the layout shown below would be more flexible as it allows that movement simultaneously with an arrival into platform 2. Probably irrelevant in 1983, but a relic of busier days.

 

D'oh: the facing point onto the Turntable Road - I should have spotted that earlier, and is a direct consequence of mirroring the plan. The "Up Main" was the Down "B" Route of the original. I don’t think I could get away with BR remodelling that part of the layout, and really not the rest, so it will need some work. I like the idea of combining the trailing crossover with access to the turntable road, but I think it would be a bit odd that the light engines from the "A" road would need to gain access to the Down and back to the Turntable road, blocking all access to the station in the process. So, as you’ve suggested, I think some sort of head shunt will be required – more fiddling in Templot.

 

That’s a single slip from the Up into Platform 2; it’s not that clear on the image. Unfortunately the crossing angles on both the diamond and the other legs of the slip are to big to make them into slips. In earlier times, I think I’ll just have to assume that locomotives either run straight round to their trains, or they waited on the "A" road for a quiet period in the timetable before heading off to the turntable. On the real thing there was only sufficient room for a tank engine to use the crossovers to gain access to the loco releases, there must have been a number of movements to and from the turntable on the real thing.

 

When I get a chance, a new puppy is taking a fair amount of time up at the moment; I’ll modify the plan, and post the results. Again, many thanks Pete and Simon.

 

 

[Flying Pig]

Yes I've just read up about that layout in the Guild's "Fifty Years Along The Line" - the layout(s) was built by Bob Ledger. Boy do those course scale chaps have some fun, which to some extent I think us finescale people may have lost, but that's for another post!

I'm glad it isn't forgotten - it was a cracking layout. My favourite story from the RM account was of his scratchbuilt Peak (a very nice model regardless of wheel standards) getting away from a driver more used to lightweight plastic 00 and taking out the end wall of the plywood trainshed. Fun, but probably not the kind you want to have in ScaleSeven.

[richard_t]

Hello,

 

Another update – Unfortunately I don’t physically have room for a head shunt and trailing connection to the turntable road without compromising on the rest of the plan – yes I’m being a little bit pig headed, but I feel I’ll lose the essence of the layout if I do. So the result is combing the trailing crossover between the up and down mains and access to the turntable road via a slip. The result is below:

 

I have tried a few other ideas, like back mirroring the platform roads but the resultant curves are then far too tight. Placing the turntable road on the bottom of the plan, instead of the top again doesn’t really help, so I’ll just have to live with the result. The fiction will be that the “A†road locomotive release was only used by tank engines to run around their trains and hence that’s why the lengths around tandem release are small. Tender locomotives would stay at the end of the platforms until released by the outward working, and then make their way to the turntable road.

 

[Flying Pig]

Placing the turntable road on the bottom of the plan, instead of the top again doesn’t really help

Something like the sketch below seemed an obvious solution when I looked at the site again - does it not fit your space or are the curves too tight?

 

[richard_t]

Hello

 

I'd thought of that and tried a few sketches out, but it’s a no-no I’m afraid, as the two lines come out through the garage side-door leaving enough space for me to walk (sideways, after a diet), rather than crawl under the boards (and a useful 3 brick high step at the door entrance doesn’t help).

[richard_t]

Another update I’m afraid, at least this project hasn’t been put on the back burner, like so many others before it.

 

During my recent stay in hospital and lengthy time recuperating I started to work out the timetable and movements within the station area. I have the 1967-68 working timetable for Manchester Central and by this time services to the East Midlands and London had been moved to London Road so this fits in nicely with the services I’m planning for Windmill Street. Starting with the Sunday timetable it became very clear that Windmill Street needs another platform just to cope with the Sunday traffic let alone the weekday traffic. So back to the original Manchester Central plan and the garage outline and I found that I could include platform 4 along with its associated release road. This will become Platform 1 and the “A†Road in the Manchester Windmill Street plan.

This then caused another problem of access to the down line from both this platform and the “A†Road. If I just directly copied Manchester Central, then the only route would be via the slip off the turntable road, meaning that departures from Platform 1/â€A†Road would royally bung up the works. So I then started looking at extending the line from the down main to the old Platform 1 (now 2), to the “A†road and the new platform face, providing single slips to access both of these. Luckily the angles worked out for once, and although it leaves Platform 1 a little short there is still room for a 4 coach DMU. I’m undecided to keep the physical platform the original length, or truncate to the access to the down line. I like the idea of a unit lost in a long platform, so at the moment it’s staying the original length.

An advantage of including this platform is that I can also include an iconic piece of trackwork: the triple turnout. In my scheme, the straight road through the turnout provided access to the CLC Goods depot, but was truncated when the depot was closed. To keep costs to a minimum, the switch blades where simply locked and the rails to the depot lifted. Somehow no one has got around to doing anything thing about it. Finally, with platforms on both sides of the layout thoughts have turned back to providing some kind of overall roof – this has been spurred on by obtaining sketches of the original roof at Central. Not sure how uncoupling would work under it.

Whilst fiddling about with the main station, I also managed to get a further 2 meters of space outside the garage (by a sneakily moving the camellia bush), which eases the curves through the fiddle yard and providing better access to the train cassette.

Next on the list of things to do, after some timbering shoving, is to re-work out the Sunday and week day timetables. From these I’ll be able to work out the stock requirements. I’ll also need to consider signalling of the layout, trough runs and the like.

[Flying Pig]

During my recent stay in hospital and lengthy time recuperating I started to work out the timetable and movements within the station area.

Clearly time well spent, but I hope you're recovered now and up to the rigours of moving camellias once the ice age abates.

 

I like - sorry - I am liking the extra platform, but I can't see how the ladder of slips really gains you anything except more work building track, since as far as I can tell departures from Platform 1 will still have to cross the entire throat and block all other moves. I think the layout would look cleaner without.

[Pugsley]

I'm glad you have updated it - I missed this the first time round. It sounds like my kind of layout, weeds, decay, urban grot - lovely!

 

The track plan looks interesting and the idea of the DMU looking lost in the platform is a nice one, something you should definitely retain if possible.

[richard_t]

Thanks Simon and Martin for your comments - much appreciated.

 

As I was typing up the description of the modifications (after spending days and days with Templot), I did realise that movements off Platform 1 either off the slips or the turntable road was pretty much the same. I'll merge bits from the original and get rid of the slips and see what I think. The original intention was for the turntable road slip was just for movements to and from that line, but there's no real reason for it. Getting rid of the slips and the turnout in the middle of Platform 1 would make things somewhat easier.

 

Long trains in short platforms is one of the things I don't like (with a passion) - I'd rather have shorter trains but with a bit of platform at either end - I've rarely seen a locomotive overhanging the end of the platform.

 

Update as and when I can.

[queensquare]

Long trains in short platforms is one of the things I don't like (with a passion) - I'd rather have shorter trains but with a bit of platform at either end - I've rarely seen a locomotive overhanging the end of the platform.

 

 

I am building Bath Queen Square (Green Park from the early 50s) c.m1d 1920's in 2FS. The two platforms could hold just eight and nine coaches respectively and regularly saw the reversal of twelve coach double headed trains. The result was that the first three or four coaches would overhang the platform, the locos ending up on the other side of the river. The gaurd would move through the train after the Gloucester stop advising those wishing to alight at Bath to make for the first eight coaches.

 

regards Jerry

[richard_t]

I look forward to seeing Bath Queen Square!

Sorry I probably didn’t explain myself very clearly in my previous post. I didn’t mean to suggest it never happened, it’s just that in the run of the mill railway that I remember from my youth and more recently as a railway photographer I can count the number of times I’ve seen a locomotive overhang the platforms on one hand, and I’ve never seen a unit it do it. As a consequence of this I’d rather limit the length of the trains to help give the illusion of a train lost in a length of platform. In this case therefore most of the passenger trains will either be 2 or 4 car diesel multiple units or the odd locomotive hauled “clubman†services, again to a maximum of 4 carriages. I might be able to make a 5 carriage “Chester vansâ€, but at least two of those would be CCTs. But that’s all jumping ahead a little.

 

Anyhow, onto version 4: Gone are the slips onto Platform 2 and the “A†Road, to be replaced with pretty much the original from Central. Trains from Platform 1 will access the down via the slip off the turntable road. I’ve also moved out the catch points on the “A†Road as well, with the last thing I’m considering is pushing the releases a bit further out, but I’m undecided on this. I think I’ve got the timbering sorted this time, but no doubt a 5% printout this evening will reveal a few that I’ve missed.

 

 





 

Christmas downtime will be spent planning the timetables, and from there the signalling diagram. Expect a post in the “Permanent Way, Signalling & Infrastructure†forum at some point!

[richard_t]

I thought it might be interesting to others if I listed all of the references that I’ve used in compiling the history of the layout and the track plan. If anything it will be a reminder/useful list for me! Those in italic are references that I’ve yet to follow up; I’ll be hitting the interlibrary loan system in the New Year.

 

Books

Portrait of the Cheshire Lines Committee; Nigel Dyckhoff; 1999; Ian Allan Publishing; ISBN 0 7110 2521 5

 

The Cheshire Lines Committee - Then and Now; Nigel Dyckhoff; 1984; Ian Allan Publishing; ISBN 0 7110 1410 8

 

British Railways Operating History – Volume One The Peak District; C. Bentley; 1997; Xpress Publishing; ISBN 1 901 05600 7

 

Operation Midland – Passenger Services 1955; P. Webb & W.S. Becket; 2006; Xpress Publishing; ISBN 978 1 901 05628 0

 

Midland Through the Peak; Brian Radford; 1988; Unicorn Books; ISBN 1 852 41001 9

 

Scenes from the Past 36 (Pt 1): Altrincham to Manchester before Metrolink; N.R. Knight; 1999; Foxline Publishing; ISBN 1 870 11960 6

 

Scenes from the Past 16 (Pt 1): The Midland Route from Manchester; E.M. Johnson; 1992; Foxline Publishing; ISBN 1 870 11920 7

 

Scenes from the Past 16 (Pt 2): The Midland Route from Manchester; E.M. Johnson; 1992; Foxline Publishing; ISBN 1 870 11921 5

 

Scenes from the Past 8: Railways in and around Manchester Suburbs; E.M. Johnson; 1989; Foxline Publishing; ISBN 1 870 11908 8

 

Scenes from the Past 3: Manchester Railway Termini; E.M. Johnson; 1993 (3rd Ed); Foxline Publishing; ISBN 1 870 11930 4

 

Railways in and around Manchester – The Changing Scene; E.M. Johnson; 1994; Foxline Publishing; ISBN 1 870 11936 6

 

Scenes from the Past 48: Manchester’s Central Station and the Great Northern Railway Goods Warehouse; E.M. Johnson; 2005; Foxline Publishing; ISBN 1 870 11979 7

 

Rail Centres (Number 20): Manchester; Stanley Hall; 1995; Booklaw Publishing; ISBN 1 901 94529 4

 

British Railways Past and Present 41: Manchester and South Lancashire; Paul Shannon & John Hillmer; 2003; The Nostalgia Collection; ISBN 978 1 858 95197 3

 

Liverpool and Manchester 2: Cheshire Lines; Bob Pixton; 2007; Kestrel Railway Books; ISBN 978 1 905 50503 6

 

An Illustrated History of the Cheshire Lines Committee; Paul Bolger; 1984; Heyday Publishing Company; ISBN 0 947 56200 1

 

The John Swift Collection, British Railways Layout Plans of the 1950s Volume 13: Cheshire Lines Committee and associated Great Central Lines; 2009; Signalling Record Society; ISBN 978 1 873 22817 3

 

The Railway Station; J. Richards & J.M. Mac Kenzie; 1986; Oxford University Press

 

Victorian Railway Stations; G. Biddle; 1973; David and Charles

 

Great Railway Stations of Britain; G. Biddle; 1986; David and Charles

 

Iron Roofs, Examples of Design; A.T. Walmisley; 1888; E. and F.N. Spon

 

The Great Central (volume 2); G.Dow; 1962; Ian Allan Publishing

 

Locomotives of the Great Central; E.M. Johnson; 1989; Irwell Press

 

The LMS and LNER in Manchester; R.E. Rose; 1987; Ian Allan Publishing

 

The Cheshire Lines Railway; R.P. Griffiths; 1947; Revised: C.T. Goode, 1978; The Oakwood Press

 

The Midland Main Line 1875-1922; E.G. Barnes; 1969; Allen and Unwin

 

Forgotten Railways – North West England; J. Marshall; 1981; David and Charles

 

The Development of the Central Station Site into the GMEX Centre; N. Spooner; 1987; Central Station Properties Ltd

Official Publications

 

Passenger Services Timetable; 11th September 1961-17th June 1962; British Railways

 

Section L: Working Timetable of Passenger Trains between Dunford Bridge and Manchester; 7th September 1964-13th June 1965; British Railways London Midland Region (North Western Lines)

 

Section F: Working Timetable of Passenger Trains between Manchester Central, Liverpool Central, Chester and Branches, Manchester London Road and Altrincham; 21st September 1953 until further notice; British Railways London Midland Operating Area (Western Division)

 

Section K: Working Timetable of Passenger Trains between Manchester Central, Liverpool Central, Chester Northgate and Branches; 6th March 1967-5th May 1968; British Railways London Midland Region

 

Magazine Articles / Newspapers

 

Railway World; June 1969; The rise and fall of Manchester Central; K. Groundwater; Ian Allan Publishing

 

Railway World; June 1969; Memories of the CLC and Manchester Central; Eric Mason; Ian Allan Publishing

 

Back Track; March-April 1992; From Train Shed to Exhibition centre:- Manchester Central Station; Robert Emblin; Atlantic

 

The Mancunian; Number 150; Manchester Central Station; R.W. Miller; Manchester Locomotive Society

 

Railway Architecture; 1979; Major City Stations; D. Atwell; Orbis Publishing

 

Notes on Selected Stations and Associated Buildings; 1979; Major City Stations; D. Atwell; Orbis Publishing

 

Institution of Civil Engineers; 1914 (vol 197)

 

The Engineer; February and March 1880

 

The Manchester Guardian; Friday 2nd July 1880

Public Bodies

The Public Record OfficeThe National Archive; Kew

 

The National Railway Museum; York

 

The Greater Manchester County Record Office; Manchester

 

Manchester Central Library; Manchester

 

Finally, numerous photographs from the likes of John Chalcraft, from ebay and similar sites have all provided numerous useful details, even when not the main subject of the photograph.

 

 

 

[Pugsley]

Thanks for the list of resources, especially the CLC ones. I'll need a crash course on CLC practises for my planned S7 layout. Not for a while though - I need to get the 4mm layout finished first!

[richard_t]

Hello

 

Managed a bit of "me" time over the Christmas break, which allowed me to work through the Sunday working timeable. I've used the real 1967/8 timetable as a basis for this work of fiction, and the timetable itself is presented in the style of an Euston timetable I happen to have. The extra platform has worked out rather well; the number of ECS moves has been reduced, and I've been able to keep set services to set platforms:

 

• Chester trains use Platform 1 - the exception being the late night/early morning van train
• Liverpool trains use Platforms 2 and 3
• Irlam and Warrington Central use Platform 4

Anyhow attached is the second draft - I hope it's of interest to people. I'm expecting the Monday-Saturday timetable to take a bit more time.

section-k (suns).pdf

[richard_t]

Just to keep a track of the other threads I've created for this project, here is a list of links:

 

• Signalling question

Others to follow